fair trade on campus

panda100

Just wanted to know does anyone use the fairtrade option in the student union shops and the restaurant?If not why not?And if it was cheaper or more accesible would you use the fair trade products such as coffee chocolate etc or would you still use your own regular brand?

beanyb

Are you in Labour Youth?

Red Alert

does it matter whether she is or not?

Sangre

My stinginess > my compassion

Not to mention I don't drink coffee or eat chocolate

kittenkiller

I don't really drink coffee (i usually stick to killer-cola).
But when i do go for a cup of the balck stuff as long as it's not the hilpers bog-water, i'll drink just about anything.
My idea of having a social consience is not farting in a lift unless i'm on my own!
Sorry!

irlrobins

kittenkiller wrote:

not farting in a lift unless i'm on my own!

Nice....

Be careful! One day u'll get caught out when the lift stops a floor before yours and someone gets in....

rainbow kirby

That's their problem not hers

beanyb

Red Alert wrote:

does it matter whether she is or not?

Eh.. yeah because they were selling fair trade coffee outside the arts block today, and I was wondering if she was part of that.

And anyway, yeah I'd buy fair trade stuff if it was more widely available definitely.

World Aid Soc are having fair trade day on Nov 2nd to highlight the cause as part of development week with free coffee, a treasure hunt, an inflatable twister board and possibly a live band playing in the student centre. Should be great!

irlrobins

rainbow kirby wrote:

That's their problem not hers

Well if its the man of her dreams and he knows it was her who is responsible for stinking out the lift then it might be her prob..... ;-)

kittenkiller

The man of my dreams knows better than to leave me alone in a lift!

Funky

i had a great cup of tea from that stand !

Jonny Arson

panda100 wrote:

Just wanted to know does anyone use the fairtrade option in the student union shops and the restaurant?If not why not?And if it was cheaper or more accesible would you use the fair trade products such as coffee chocolate etc or would you still use your own regular brand?

I didn't even know of a fair trade option. Maybe people would embrace these products if they were properly promoted as I certainly would.

humbert

didn't see the fair trade thing on campus and have to admit I've never noticed it in the student union shops,I'd like buy products that were giving the people who pick the coffee and cocoa beans and who usually get totally screwed a fair deal but it would still depend on whether they were a little or a lot dearer.I think its far more constructive to stock fair trade products in shops than to go around banning coke and Nestlé...more choice instead of less

Economaniac!

Can't Speak for Comm, Sci or Eng, but i`m in Arts so basically you have to undercut the Arts Cafe (Hilper's for all you nostalgics), which wouldnt be hard as the service of adding boiling water to a tea bag, and the providing milk, apparently sets them back €1.30. Fair Trade? yeah sure, why not, but all you really have to do is be cheaper!, even €1 wud be better!

And with regards to the Fair Trade Tea/Coffee Stand outside the Arts Block yesterday, yuck?!! I would have just donated 50c for tea instead of take tea from a stand which was getting soaked by the rain! My opinion, get a stand outside theatre L and sell fair trade stuff there for a week, see how it goes.

zinc

The lads need to move closer to the Arts cafe to really get it going, but fair play, I need to break out of my rut and start supporting them.

Mr.Nice Guy

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

I didn't even know of a fair trade option. Maybe people would embrace these products if they were properly promoted as I certainly would.

I didn't hear anything about this either with the exception of those two people who had the tea that was getting soaked in the rain. I'd welcome any effort to give students a fair deal as the prices in UCD (Arts cafe cough!) are atrocious.

PiZaRR-0

If you look at the poster on the 46a bus stop on the fly over you'll see a list of products endorsed by fair trade. Its fairly limited panda and people will still buy their normal produts unless the fair trade products are cheaper. Also is there proof of where the product has come from? Is it like the system where u can track meat that you buy in a butchers? Im actually very interested in the fair trade stuff. Actually worth while, not like all the coke bull****, had a run in with some twat sayin i shouldnt drink coke, cause of the whole columbian thing! Doubt he knew anything about the scenario. Hate those idiots trying to enforce their seasonal crusades. AHHH RANT OVER!

Alana

I think the lad who was selling the tea in the rain-bless him, was some lad called duffy or dunphy-memory not too hot atm, ran for one of the students union officers last year. Personally I think it's great, cheap tea, woo

Other alternative is to just buy a big box of tea bags, stick them in your locker and then just get cups of hot water (or bring in your own kettle) and make tea that way-stingy, but at least you know where your tea is coming from...then again if one wanted to be entirely ethical and morally proper one would have to question where the milk was coming from-was that cow treated fairly? did it have enough grass and space for it to be correctly psychologically (sp) balanced and intune...? Ok I jest, but it's not fair on the cows-everyone is always concerned about chickens, but you see no-one out there in the streets demonstrating for cows rights....no.:p

Back to the tea. I generally do tend to go for fair trade products where i can and where it is economically sound (ie on a thursday day before payday, i'll just go cheap). There are a few shops around town where you can buy fair trade stuff. What I generally do is just have a store of stuff in my locker, (mainly popcorn actually...) so it saves on hassle and i know where i got it and how much i paid for it, and that i didnt get ripped off in the arts cafe.

god i sound really scabby.

But c'mon, in my notoriously expensive spar you can buy a single yoghurt for like 60c, the same one is 40c in dunnes, but in the arts cafe i was bowld over this morning when late and in a rush to get breakfast it was 85c. bah?for a yoghurt...i duno.

god i really do sound scabby.

Back to the topic,OP i do buy fair trade, but not all the time, anything from clothes to tea to pasta, (unfortuantely dublin doesnt have as good/wide a variety of stuff as fair trade shops do on in countries like france/belgium/italy/england imho)if there was a greater variety then yea i'd probably buy more items, but i also have to be realistic, -the ol cliche-i'm a student,not earning that much, and getting no assistance, if I need to buy something and I'm broke-I'd like to buy fair trade but sometimes it just makes more economic sense to not buy it-ie i buy fair trade today, no lunch 2m (again extreme but hopefully ye get my drift and i dont get blasted out of it) ...as for the chocolate, which i'm trying to avoid(gotta make room for christmas:D ) at certain times only dairy milk beats them cravings.

Tayto2000

Fair Trade is for sale all over the campus, even Hilpers do it but it's 50c more expensive than the aforementioned bog-water and usually cold because they just make up a thermos in the morning and leave it all day. Maybe if one of the big brewers was turned over to fair trade? Advertising and charging a more reasonable price would help too.

panda100

cool good feedback there-learnt two things from this thread
1)never get stuck in a lift with kittenkiller
2)We really have to get fair trade up and running on campus